Xi'an's food, generally speaking, is served in large portions, is inexpensive and each dish has its own story.On a downtown street, everywhere one can see signs, including "Old Sun Family's Paomo (steamed bun soaking in mutton soup), "Old Ma Family's Mutton" and "Old Liu Family's Hulutou (a local snack)". At the food street, food stands one after another stretch several hundreds meters. At night, temporary food stands fully line both sides of the street. Everywhere, there is a smell of delicous snacks.On the street, small restaurants and temporary food stands serve very cheap snacks. A bowl of hulutou costs only three yuan. Many temporary stands sell Chengdu's hot specialty, 20 cents per cube. With so many rich snacks, a lot of local people do not prepare meals at home and are willing to eat at food stands.

Fanji is the famous vendor of Shaanxi's most widely consumed snack, Rou Jia Mo, finely chopped pork stuffed in toasted wheat flour flat bread. A piece of good-quality (youzhi) bread and a bowl of mung bean flour soup will cost you no more than 10 Yuan. The state-run atmosphere is quaint and friendly, and the numerous awards that decorate the walls are well deserved. The restaurant is in a lane opposite the Drum Tower, south of West Main Street

Fan' cured meat in pancakes ( a sort of sandwich) is one of the traditonal Shaanxi delicacies. In fact they are pancakes made if high-quality wheat flour stuffed with cured meat. The popular name among the local people is " pancakes in cured meat". "if you call them pancakes with cured meat", the native would consider it awkard and laughable. Cured meat bears a long history in China. Researchers prove that "Zi" out of the "Eight Treasures of Zhou dynasty"recorded in "The Rites of the Zhou dynasty" refer to exactly to cured meat. Fan's cured meat appeared in Xi'an a long time ago, and there is a story about it.

In the tang Dynasty, an official called Fan lived in Eastern Chang'an. Once he heloed those flood-stricken refugees from Sourthern Shaanxi with his grain storage, and financed a young man when his mother died. Ten years later. This young man became wealthy through his cured meat business. To show his gratitude, he went to Fan's 80th brithday with an instricatedly built coffin mafe of Chinese prickly ash wood. In the coffin there hid cured meat made of 250 kg of lean meat.

Since there were many guests on the day Fan did not take any notice of the coffin. The coffin was put in the storage house. Ten years later, Fan was deprived of his official post and died of illness. The family had no means of making a living but sell property. At last, they found the coffin in the small house. When the family opened it, there was the aromatic and freshly looking cured meat! Mrs. Fan sent some of it for sale in the market, and it was well received.

The news spread quickly. More people rushed to the family for the meat. Mrs. Fan put some fresh meat into the juice. The newly cooked cured meat was just as delicious. Then the Fans ran a store to sell cured meat and its frame went apace. Later, during the reign of the Emperor Guang Xu in the Qing Dynasty, Fan Bingren, the father, and Fan Fengxiang, the son, both descendants of the Fans, came from Lantian to Xi'an and opened their cured meat store. After some improvement was made upon the traditonal techniques, their store surpassed all the others in the same trade.

In the yeat 1989, Fan's Cured Meat in Pancakes won the "Gold Tripod Prize" awarded by National Business Ministry.

Location: Beilin
Cuisine Category: Dim Sum
Pricing Category: Low (under 100Y)
Cost per person: RMB15
Specialty: Rou Jia Mo
Payment: Cash
Address: No. 53 ZhuBaShi Street, Beilin District
Opening Hours: 9:00am-8:30pm
Booking no: (029) 87273917